By James Wells

SYDNEY: Sony Australia MD, Carl Rose, has told Current.com.au prices of Sony products will rise by between 5 and 30 per cent from 1 January 2009 due to the high costs of exchange rates following the decline of the Australian dollar.

“The current economic situation is presenting a unique set of challenges for our industry,” Rose told Current.com.au.

“Specifically, there is currently a 30 per cent fluctuation in the exchange rate, bringing the AUD to its lowest ebb in eight years; and this stands to significantly impact our costs and we must take action to address this.

“We have resisted any price movements throughout the important Christmas trading period.  However, in the New Year we will need to introduce a range of price increases.

“Also, in order to help retail partners manage marketing activities and prepare administration departments, in what we know is the busiest time of the year, we have endeavoured to advise of our planned changes as soon as we possibly could,” he said.

Rose has confirmed that the only price increases on 1 January 2009 will apply to Vaio notebook PCs and car audio products.

Other categories including audio, visual, digital imaging, personal audio and recordable media will receive price increases from 1 February onwards of between 5 per cent to 30 per cent subject to currency fluctuations.

“We will work closely with our retail partners to minimise the impact of this to our industry, and appreciate their understanding of this matter,” Rose said.